Astronomy Visualization for Education and Outreach

Goodman, Alyssa

Astronomy visualization software such as WorldWide Telescope, Google Sky, Celestia, and Partiview, are opening up exciting new opportunities in science education and public outreach. For example, an initiative is already underway that uses WorldWide Telescope to enhance teaching of astronomy and physics in classrooms, planetariums, and museums.

We invite the developers of these visualization programs, educators, and scientists with an interest in public outreach to participate in this session to:

*learn more about how to use these tools to enrich your outreach work

*highlight experiences to date, sharing ways you’ve already used these programs in your outreach work

*brainstorm ideas on maximizing the educational impact of this software in formal and informal settings

*discuss the most effective ways to promote use of these tools in educational settings

*offer feedback to the developers on what kinds of features and improvements would be most valuable in an educational setting.

We encourage participants to bring laptops with the relevant software, so we can have an interactive show-and-tell during this session.